


From the Horizon

by TiedyedTrickster



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Oh the Humanity AU, bonestealer mcmoonsprite, chapter 2 is just some loose ends being tied up, originally submitted to doodledrawsthings on tumblr, soon-dey-ray-ness on the part of a certain ghost, the happy ending happens at the end of chapter 1 btw, the horizon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24567883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiedyedTrickster/pseuds/TiedyedTrickster
Summary: Moonjumper makes a mistake and Snatcher makes a choice, both unexpected.A response totheseposts.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a segment of a larger AU that's taking place on tumblr and has been for awhile now, originated and orchestrated by the brilliant Mac/doodledrawsthings, who's just made a handy-dandy master-post to said AU this very night. If you want more background on this, you can find it [here](https://doodledrawsthings.tumblr.com/post/620140805356666880/oh-the-humanity-au-masterpost)!
> 
> TL;DR: Timepiece shenanigans happened, Snatcher's currently human, and Moonjumper decided to fight Vanessa so Snatcher could stay that way... and lost.

It observes the world quietly, serenely, as all in the Horizon do. There are many things to see, after all, for the Horizon is a place everywhere and nowhere, ever-present and utterly unreachable, visible yet never attainable by things not already there. So it watches, distant and close in a way the Solid Things cannot understand ( _would find upsetting if they tried to understand_ ).

The fragment-thought gives it pause. Where had that come from? ‘Upset,’ a curious word, unnatural, alien, incomprehensible. So why does it know it…?

Ah, yes, from the Solid World. A tear had appeared in the Horizon and it had slipped through, to view the Solid World more closely. The tear is mended now, neat red stitches returning things to as they should be. It had checked when it first returned to the Horizon, so it knows for sure.

…why had it checked? It is where it should be, all is well. Perhaps it has to do with the strange things it had noticed in itself when it returned. Shapes it should not have, sounds that do not belong, phrases that jar the silver and red serenity, and that it leaves alone. Things from its time in the Solid World that have no purpose or place here. Likely they will fade to nothing in time ( _No no nono-_ ).

It shakes away the edge of the wrong-concept lingering from its time in the Solid World and returns to observing the Solid Creatures. Strange things, a pair of small blobs – brown-and-blue, purple-and-peach – and a long gangle thing as much Shadow as Being. Nonsense beings, all of them, as all Solid Creatures are. It watches vaguely, far and close and many and no places. Wander they do, wander and commune with other Solid Creatures, old things, strange things, candle flames and books and red thread-

…perhaps it should stop watching. Why is it watching these? No reason. The Horizon lulls it ( _comforts it-_ ) another wrong-concept, it has too many of them now, perhaps these Solid Creatures are causing them, it will find others to fol-

( _NO NO NO NO NO- -ATCH- -AT KI- BO- HEL-!)_

-it will continue to follow them-

-no it will not, they make the wrong-concepts strong, it will leave-

( _-Y FRI- -DS!)_

-yes, it will leave, it will look at other-

-it cannot. It tries, but it cannot. But it is not a Solid Creature, it is of the Horizon. There are no bonds, no bounds, it simply is, it is here, it is there, except it is _not_ there, it is here, it is growing more and more Here, except Here is now There, and the Horizon, the Horizon is tearing right before it, the threads are screaming, this is Wrong, it is- ( _afraid_ ) it is- ( _not like the others anymore_ ) it is-

-dark, there is dark, there is Shadow where there is only red and silver, a Solid Creature, the Shadow-as-Being one, not here, should not be here, must get away, _wrong_ -

“ **FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL~!!!!** ”

Silence splits and wrong-concepts jangle and scream in it and it cannot escape the grasping claws, the yanking grasp, pulled from its place, out of the Horizon, in the Solid World again, rushing, thrusting, a shape the wrong-concepts know-

OoOoOoOoO

-Moonjumper comes to with a shriek. The last thing he remembers- he remembers- _Her_ \- or, no. No, worse, he remembers the Horizon, he had been back in the Horizon, _he doesn’t want to be back in the Horizon_ -!

“Don’t think this means I’m grateful or anything!”

The familiar voice pulls him from his thoughts, lets him look up to find Snatcher inches away from his face and glaring at him, and that’s _definitely_ a good reason to shriek again.

“Snatcher, be nice! He’s been through a very traumatic experience!”

Another familiar voice- Bow Kid, Bow Kid coming to help him sit up while Hat Kid shakes her fist at Snatcher.

“You were as worried as we were, you big pool noodle, don’t act like you don’t care!”

“I _don’t_ ,” the ghost grumps, folding his arms in an over-dramatic sulk that Moonjumper is far too familiar with, “I didn’t _tell him_ to go fight _Her_ , he did it on his own, and he got what he deserved, so there.”

“Uh-huh,” the purple-clad alien’s look is appropriately skeptical as she folds her arms right back at him, “And that’s why as soon as you found out about it you insisted on going all noodly again and on helping us get his body back and looking through all those super-boring books about how to get to the Horizon anyway-”

“You! Stop talking!” the ghost cuts her off, obviously flustered, turning his attention to Moonjumper, “And you start talking – if I grabbed the wrong stupid wispy Horizon thing, I wanna know now so I can go get the right one!”

“See? You _do_ care!”

“Shut _up_ , kiddo!”

“…you’re a ghost again.” Moonjumper blinks and- no, that wasn’t why- “You’re not supposed to be a ghost anymore, I went to fight… _Her_ so you could stay human- why are you- I thought you _wanted_ to-?” he had gotten himself sent back to the Horizon, almost stuck there again forever, for _nothing_ -?

Snatcher huffs and folds in on himself, mumbling something he can’t quite hear.

“I- I’m sorry, what was that?”

“ _WE COULDN’T GET YOU BACK IF I HAD_!” Snatcher bellows, glaring, “There, happy? Being human again made me go all mushy and do stupid things like thinking I’d _miss you_ if you were gone or something, it’s disgusting, and the space brats were _worried_ about you and it _affected_ me, _yuck_!” he sticks out his tongue, then dives into a shadow with a last call of, “And that’s _my_ old body you’re using, so you better take better care of yourself in the future or else!”

Moonjumper blinks at where the ghost had been, then down at where Bow’s still supporting him and Hat Kid is rocking on her heels, grinning, “He… helped you get me back?”

“He instigated it,” Bow informs him.

“He’s just too big a soon-dey-reh to admit it,” Hat Kid adds, hopping over to give him a hug, “Welcome home, Moonjumper!”

“Welcome home!” Bow Kid joins in the hug as well.

…they’d come for him. He’d done something incredibly stupid, then started- started _forgetting_ them and himself and everything he’d learned and loved since he first found the Prince’s body all those years ago and- and he just-

With a lump in his throat, tears in his eyes, and an almost overwhelming sense of relief, he hugs the kids back. “ _Thank-you_.”


	2. Chapter 2

It is a relief to be home in Subcon again – an odd way to phrase it, perhaps, seeing as how he hadn’t exactly missed it while he was in the Horizon after that first brief period, but now that he is here, now that he is capable of it again, he is relieved. There had been a time, when the Horizon was all he had known, that he had truly been content there, then a period of fear when he first became Moonjumper and had been half lost in all the new sensations and emotions that came with being a Solid Creature rather than simply a being of the Horizon, but now he would not trade it for anything-

Though now, as he realizes he comes inadvertently close to the clearing he’d… made when he finally snapped at Snatcher, he may still have lost something he didn’t want to lose. So many centuries of frustration and trying, finally hitting his own limit and putting his- well, his _metaphorical_ foot down and- They had been making _progress_. Finally, for the first time ever, Snatcher had apologized to _him_ , had _meant it_. The hostilities had started to vanish, finally there had been someone he could talk to about this strange situation he’d landed them in…

And then the time piece had broken and everything had gone… strange. It had- well, it was confusing! _Snatcher_ was the Prince, but _Moonjumper_ had his old body, but now Snatcher had had a body too and…

…and Moonjumper has the Prince’s memories, or copies of them at the very least. Whatever he had become, Moonjumper knows in a way no one beyond Snatcher himself can know just how many dreams the Prince had had. For life, for his kingdom, for family… While it has caused him many, _many_ troubles over the years with its original owner, Moonjumper has always been grateful in a way that it was the Prince’s body he found and inhabited, because the world had been such a wide, wonderful place to the Prince, and while Snatcher may have lost this wonder, Moonjumper never has.

So of course he’d had to try and get rid of… _Her_. Because the Prince hadn’t deserved his first death, because Snatcher had finally started letting himself move on from all that had happened to him, because Moonjumper isn’t any more prepared to let _Her_ take anything from him again than Snatcher is. Subcon is his _home_. Snatcher was becoming his _friend_. And he wasn’t going to let _Her_ take anything from him _ever again_.

Except he’d lost.

Except he’d lost and now everything… isn’t _exactly_ back to how it was, but Snatcher is a ghost again and seems intent on ignoring or forgetting all the progress he’d made during his brief return to humanity-

Moonjumper turns away from the clearing; he doesn’t want to think about all that right now. He’s home from the Horizon, he’s safe, Snatcher had helped save him, he’ll have to be content with that for now…

“OW! PECKING- THIS DOESN’T EVEN ACTUALLY HURT, WHY AM I DOING THIS?!?!!?!”

…look, Moonjumper ended up in the Solid World in the first place because he’s always been curious, even in the emotionless Horizon, so _of course_ he has to go see what in the world Snatcher’s doing in the clearing Moonjumper had made by accident that one time (which he still feels bad about).

…

…apparently he’s being in the closest he can get to his human form as a ghost, hopping on one foot while clutching the other and swearing, presumably having just kicked the tree stump he’s next to. Which is strange on multiple levels, because not only does Snatcher not experience pain the same way a living being would, he tends to avoid this particular section of Subcon, and Moonjumper hasn’t seen him take this form since he became a ghost again, not even while he was watching from the Horizon.

“YOU!”

Aaaaaand now he’s been spotted and Snatcher looks like he’s already in a bad mood and it had been _such_ a nice… well as nice a ‘day’ as it ever gets in Subcon’s eternal darkness, but the ghost is scowling straight at him, so no point in pretending he’s not here. Nervously, Moonjumper floats forward into the clearing, hands playing together with displaced nerves. “Oh! Um, hello there, Snatcher, I, um, I didn’t expect to see you here…?”

“Hmph, I’ll bet you didn’t,” the ghost grumps, folding his arms and scowling, “I’d be embarrassed to show my face around here if I were you, too!”

…not again, _please_ no, Moonjumper doesn’t want to have to tread this ground _again_ , especially not _here_ of all places, “I- I’m- I’ll just be going then-”

“What? No!” Snatcher steps into a shadow and reemerges right next to Moonjumper, grabbing his shoulders and forcibly turning him to look at the clearing. “Look at this place, you haven’t even moved any of the tree trunks around to make it more- more- _whatever_ places you arrange look like! It’s disgraceful!”

That… makes even less sense than usual. “If you want to reorganize it- I mean, it’s _your_ forest, you’ve said so often enough-”

“EXACTLY! It’s my _forest_!” Snatcher thrusts a finger in his face like he’s making perfect sense, then points at the space before them, “That’s not a _forest_ , that’s a _clearing_ , so it’s _obviously_ not my problem! And since you made it, that makes it your problem!”

This is too confusing, even for dealing with this particular ghost and _especially_ after what Moonjumper’s recently been through. “Subcon has other clearings, though, and you’re plenty possessive of those ones?”

“ _Well this one’s yours_!”

They both startle at that, apparently Snatcher had surprised even himself with the force he’d uttered the last sentence. He huffs, a glow of embarrassment settling over his face as he looks away from Moonjumper’s slack jaw, hunching over and folding his arms.

“You’re a pain, but for some _stupid_ reason it was pecking _awful_ to think I’d never see you again, so… you can have this one. If you want to. I guess.”

There’s a lump in his throat and he can feel the tears beading in his eyes, but Moonjumper just can’t stop smiling. “Okay.”

Snatcher’s head snaps up to look at him. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Moonjumper nods, beaming.

“Oh. Good.” The ghost nods, hesitates for a moment, then-

“Oof!” he wheezes as he’s suddenly being inexpertly squashed.

“Just so you know, this is a punishment hug,” Snatcher mumbles, “So don’t enjoy it or anything, this is punishment for putting me through all that trouble.”

He can’t help the snort that escapes at this comment. “You must have suffered greatly.”

“I did!”

“I’m sure,” Moonjumper raises a hand and pats him on the back, “Thanks for coming to get me.”

“…just don’t do it again.”

“Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all we have for this little leg of the AU - or at least this version of it! For more, check out the link at the beginning of the first chapter, because the content for this thing is both stellar and growing!


End file.
